We bid France adieu as we boarded an early morning train from Nice on the first leg of our trip to Vernazza, in Cinque Terre, Italy. The train was initially VERY crowded, but fortunately, most of the passengers were simply on their way to work in Monocco. I discovered that I am now of an age where young men will give me their seats on crowded trains.
While we were a bit nervous about navigating three trains on this journey, our travels went smoothly and we arrived in Vernazza in mid-afternoon. The down-side was the previously mentioned ‘Rick Steves effect’; it was absolutely overrun with tourists.
We arrived at a time when several restaurants were closed between lunch and dinner, but we were happy to find an empty table at a pizzeria right on the harbor; where we had to untangle a couple of misunderstandings with our young Italian waiter–who delivered a marguerita pizza instead of the expected beverage, and we learned that ‘pepperoni’ means peppers in Italian! Ultimately, we ended up with a wonderful Italian style pizza and a really strong marguerita!
Our Vernazza apartment was called ‘Silver Flats’ and was chock full of silver-themed décor, including two chairs that were not very practical, but pretty to look at. Overall, the apartment was very well-appointed and leveraged the limited space creatively, with an extremely comfortable and good-sized pull-out bed. During our travels we learned to really appreciate a comfortable bed and a reliable hot shower! However, the best part of this accommodation was the stunning view of the harbor below.
That evening we took a walk around the area; which includes a lot of climbing in this cliff-side village. We were rewarded with a gorgeous sunset. The views in and around Vernazza were the most spectacular of our entire trip.
We only had one full day in Vernazza, and unfortunately, Dan was down for the count that day with a head-cold. The good news is that he had a very comfy spot to rest and recuperate; and our only planned activity for the day was hiking–something I could readily do solo.
After getting some decongestant for Dan and making sure he was comfortably settled, I set out on my own on the rigorous hike between Vernazza and Monterosso-about 2 Kilometers as the crow flies… but the crows don’t climb up and down! While I consider myself in reasonably good shape, there were hundreds of steps carved out of earth and stone, along with other rough terrain, so I found myself stopping to ‘take pictures’ (and catch my breath) multiple times. I stumbled across a marriage proposal on the way and chatted with several other hikers. The scenery was magnificent as the path wound up and down through many ‘tiers’ and terraces in the cliffs.
As I got closer to Monterosso, more hikers were embarking on the path TO Vernazza, which congested the single-file pathways; there were a surprising number of hikers that were ill-equipped for what lay ahead (i.e. wearing sandals and with small children in tow).
After about two hours I emerged into a beautiful beach. I happily unfurled my towel, cooled off in the water and took a welcome rest. Eventually I packed up my beach-items and found a snack of some of the local specialties, sangria and anchovy bruchetta, before taking the (short) train back to Vernazza. 
Although Dan was still not feeling great, we grabbed a quick dinner at the harbor-side restaurant, which ended up being worst meal of the trip: a blue-crab pasta concoction that contained only the merest ‘essence’ of crab.
All the cities we visited were beautiful in their own way, but the views at Vernazza were the most stunning of them all. I hope the villages of Cinque Terre are able to find a way to maintain their small-village charm against the onslaught of well-meaning tourists, such as ourselves.
Please see the links to the other cities we visited on our adventure: